cargill

She danced an excerpt from Giselle (the 2nd act pas de deux) with Herman Cornejo at the recent Studio 5 (from City Center) program honoring Cornejo's 20 years with ABT, and even in that setting (no stage, no sets, bright lighting) I thought she was magical.  I really hope I get to see her do it.

Oh my gosh, that is just too cute!

23 hours ago, Jack Reed said:

Amazing!  Do you remember the venue?

It was a touring company in Texas I think.

Those 19th century stagers really went all out--I can remember my grandmother talking about seeing Ben Hur with a live chariot race.

The author seems to have been quite successful, going by Wikipedia.  I loved the titles of his other works on the cover page!

Well, time does fly.

I just saw that Maina Gielgud has posted this on her youtube channel.  "Steps, Notes, and Squeaks" was a program she devised about 25 years ago, and one of the versions has Beriosova coaching the grand pas de deux from "The Sleeping Beauty".  She doesn't dance it, but she does move, so it is possible to get a glimpse of what she must have been like.  Her part starts about about 27:50.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzldHPaQNmw

In some productions she presents them to her mother, which is a much nicer touch!

12 hours ago, Mashinka said:

 

He: " I thought that was wonderful"

She:  "I hated it"

He: "Even the wonderful Bizet?"

She: "It was like Swan Lake without Tchaikovsky"

I'm still recovering from that one.

Well, she is in good company--John Martin of the New York Times dismissed Symphony in C as "That ballet of his, this time for some inscrutable reason to the Bizet symphony".  The second movement (which I love) is like Swan Lake without Tchaikovsky.

She certainly cut the pas de chat in her solo, just before the fouettes--or at least just barely indicated it.

Yes, I remember it.  It was years ago, and Stiefel was wonderful as the boy in blue.  Gillian Murphy (I think she may have been a soloist then, but maybe she was in the corps) was phenomenal as one of the girls in red.  (with all the turns)

3 hours ago, canbelto said:

Color me shocked. I always thought what made Petipa ballets great was the choreography, not the costumes or scenery.

ETA: I find the parade of costumes in those aforementioned Petipa ballets to be the weakest parts of the ballets. The best part of La Bayadere, for instance, is The Kingdom of the Shades when the costumes are just simple white tutus. 

It is a combination--Sleeping Beauty in practice costume would certainly not be as effective as the complete production.  Costumes are important for the overall look and effect of a piece--City Ballet did "Les Sylphides" in practice costumes for a while--it is certainly great choreography but it just looked flat.

Last year, I went to an interview with Ratmansky and Cassandra Trenary, and he talked about "Whipped Cream" as a ballet feerie.  At the question time, I asked him if working on Sleeping Beauty had influenced his thinking and he said "Most definitely".  Here is the quote from my writeup.  "There are a number of processions in the ballet presenting these, [fantistic creatures] which he said are based on the ballet féerie idea. (Petipa's "The Sleeping Beauty" is also a ballet féerie and in answer to a question at the end of the interview, Ratmansky said emphatically that his work on "The Sleeping Beauty" was a great influence on "Whipped Cream".)

I remember her performance in "Symphonic Variations".   She was one of the side girls, and It was the first time I had heard of her.  She was absolutely stunning. I saw a ballet acquaintance on the subway later and we both just said "Fang!".  There was such a serenity about her and absolute authority.  She used to do the nocturne in "Les Sylphides" too, which was so lyrical, and again, had such quiet authority.  

I think you meant Apparitions, not Illuminations, though it would be fascinating to see him in that one!  Sarasota has done Illuminations, so we can hope.

Maybe she changed for the curtain calls!  I definitely remember a dress with colorful splotches at the beginning of Act II.

It looks like they are using the first act Bonne Fee costume now for the finale--I saw it the first two nights and she had changed for the second act into something more colorful, though I didn't think it was quite as elegant as the first act one.

Everyone had hats and they were gorgeous!  Especially Boylston's in Act I.  I loved that the hats were part of the choreography, bobbing around.

20 minutes ago, nanushka said:

So Nikiya was in character shoes for the second (rajah's palace) scene and pointe shoes for the first (fireside) and third (betrothal) scenes? I, too, had only seen it done with Gamzatti in character shoes in the second scene and the start of the third (before she reenters to dance the pas d'action).

As I recall from the Maryinsky reconstruction, Nikiya was certainly in character shoes in the first scene, and point shoes in the shades.  I actually don't remember if she was in character shoes other times, but I do remember she did the sad little dance before the poison flower trick carrying a vina (a sort of a guitar).  There are some vestigal gestures sometimes now in that solo , but I guess carrying something would make the modern show-off balances too tricky,

5 minutes ago, CharlieH said:

Not just notations. Photos exist of the first Lilac Fairy, Marie Petipa, wearing both costumes, with different types of shoes (pointes with the Prologue tutu and heels with the character dresses).

I do so love the variety of those older dances.  Nikiya was in character shoes in Bayadere's first act too, so there was so much more contrast between it and the shades scene.

I think that the Sergeyev notations have Lilac in a tutu for the Prologue (there are notated dances for her) and then in heeled shoes and a longer gown in the vision scene.

I don't necessarily agree that the Shades solos should be corps roles.  When the Royal Ballet first did the Nureyev Shades version, often principals danced the shades (at that time, they also often danced the Sleeping Beauty fairies, too).  Roles like that are as big or as small as a dancer can make them.

In some Coppelias, the Doctor is present at the wedding and Swanhilda apologizes to him, which I think works very well, as it includes him and shows that Swanhilda has changed.  ABT does it that way, as I recall, and they use a version set by Freddie Franklin, who knew an older version.  I have never seen the Royal Ballet's version, which was based one set by Sergeyev, so I don't know if that happens, but it should!  

I find the ending more gratuitous than shocking.  I would feel the same way about the piece if Ferri and Cornejo and the two little girls walked off into the sunset petting bunnies.  For the me choreography was so unmusical,  jerky, and overwrought, making the dancers look ugly for no apparent reason than to signify "this is not your mother's ballet", like a boy writing naughty words on a wall, just to feel important.

2 hours ago, FauxPas said:

I will be seeing both casts of AfteRite since I am going again tomorrow.

I wasn't shocked or horrified, nor did I find the ending in bad taste.  I saw the references to "Sophie's Choice" and the holocaust but wasn't really offended.  I expect "The Rite of Spring" or a derivative ballet to have some violence and to depict ritualized murder.  My main reaction is that the choreography didn't really relate well to the story nor did it clarify the characters, their position in this dystopian post-apocalyptic society or what their reaction was to the planned sacrifice.

Basically Alessandra Ferri was the Mother of the two little girls.  She is brought on alone and then has a black bag thrown over her head while she is pushed around the stage.  She then has the bag removed and goes into the death chamber where her two little girls are being kept prisoner.  She chose one girl ("the fair-haired girl") to live on while the other remains in the greenhouse/gas chamber.  Ferri then emerges from the greenhouse/death chamber and dances a bunch of twisty, turning pas de deux with Herman Cornejo.  Who is Herman?  At first he seems to be Ferri's husband or partner - then he turns into her tormentor.  And who is the seemingly sympathetic Blaine Hoven?  The child's father?  He expresses desperation and grief and then just fades away.  The choreography looks the same full of contorted lifts and splits with rotating limbs.  The "love" duet and the "torture" duet look the same.  And Ferri just keeps dancing around with men while her little girl is sitting in that death chamber for what seems like an eternity.  Kick Herman in the balls and then tear the door open and run off with the kid, Alex!!!   Everyone in the first section spends a lot of time in various pas de deux, pas de trois, pas de quatre, etc. but we don't know who they are or what their relationship is.  Usually, "Rite of Spring" deals with a group mentality so you have a corps of dancers vs. one soloist as the "Chosen One".  Here everyone is fragmented into various subgroups but the choreography looks the same with the women being manipulated into extreme positions by the men.  But the men dance with the men the same way with the same partnering.  There is a lot of talent on that stage (notably Cassandra Trenary has returned from injury but her role has no salient characteristics or arc).  

The costumes are also just the usual modern ballet tank tops, bare chest and beige pants/leggings for the men and camisole and athletic shorts for the girls.  It all looks very generic with no identifiable place or time.

I felt that Macauley in his NY Times review really reached out to meet McGregor more than halfway but still felt the piece came up short.  The narrative just didn't gel and for me no characters were created that you could care about except that Ferri as always creates a real human being on that stage.  But she was working in a void and you never knew whether she wanted to save her child or was just passive and crushed by societal pressure.  Her motivations and actions seemed unclear and incongruous with the situation of having her child there in danger a few feet away.  The general feeling was of total alienation from the situation and humanity.  But then there was Ferri who was electric, alive and vulnerable onstage but what she was given to do didn't make sense.  I was too bewildered to be offended - I couldn't connect anything I saw to any reality.